A.M. Roundup: Cuomo asks for $30 billion for storm

Good morning! It’s a rainy day in Albany, but temperatures should still be in the 40s. Gov. Andrew Cuomo remains in New York City, where this afternoon he’ll make an announcement with federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The state Division of Budget will hold hearings today in Albany on next year’s spending plan. The Thruway Authority is scheduled to meet today in Albany; its agenda is unclear. And a recanvass in the 46th State Senate district will begin. Here are today’s headlines…

Bill Hammond: Failing to take proper charge of the Long Island Power Authority is proving to be Gov. Cuomo’s worst screwup to date — and it’s a doozy.//Despite red flags that the state-owned utility serving almost 3 million New Yorkers was badly mismanaged, Cuomo allowed it to drift under holdover leadership for the first 22 months of his term.//That not-so-benign neglect blew up in his face with a vengeance when superstorm Sandy struck on Oct. 29 — knocking out power to 87% of LIPA’s customers in Nassau, Suffolk and the Rockaway Peninsula.

Michael Powell: The telephone rings; it is Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Gov. Chris Christie has given voice to New Jersey’s pain, but New York’s governor presents the more interesting study. Even as he has catapulted across the regions and threatened a somnolent Long Island Power Authority with extinction if it does not restore electricity service faster, he has spoken of the global-warming challenge. Sea walls, artificial reefs, dikes, retrofitting of buildings: All has to happen, and soon, he warns.//His voice has no trace of sympathy for mayoral candidates. “They have been handed the next mayor’s agenda,” he says. “The urban center that figures this out is the urban center of the next century. What could be more important than that?” (NYT)

“I think that at the end of the day, the wish for the Democrats to be in control of the Senate expressed by the voters will prevail,” Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins said of the IDC. “I’m sure that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, having been through difficult times, will make sure that’s the outcome of this period of transition.”

Republican State Chairman Ed Cox blamed Obama’s surge with his party’s difficulties in New York. (TU)

The Times Union: When the New York Racing Association looks like a model of openness compared with the New York State Thruway Authority, something is seriously wrong, and it isn’t, for once, with NYRA.//For six days now, the public has been forced to guess what the Thruway Authority will discuss at its next meeting, which may occur today. Speculation is that the authority is likely to discuss, if not approve, an extraordinarily controversial 45 percent toll hike on heavy trucks.//The authority should be ashamed of itself for such secrecy. And Gov. Andrew Cuomo should be ripping mad to have such opacity going on in state government on his watch. (TU)

A major tech manufacturing plant will not be coming to North Greenbush. (TU)

Alex Roarty and Naureen Khan: Andrew Cuomo, the disciplined New York governor and son of iconic Democrat Mario Cuomo, is a name also frequently on the lips of Democratic operatives when it comes to 2016. His first years in office, highlighted by his successful push for gay marriage, are considered a major success, and his approval rating hovers in the 70s. If Cuomo runs, he could very well be the race’s early front-runner. But speculating about his ambitions remains premature, given that Cuomo is only halfway through his first term. “He’s not thinking about this. What he’s thinking about is how to make sure he’s in position to think about it,” said Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. (National Journal)

Alexis Grenell: Throughout the campaign, Republicans tried to spin the “war on women” — which, in addition to out-of-touch comments about rape, played out over such issues as insurance coverage for birth control and access to abortion — by claiming that women cared most about the economy and wouldn’t mistake rhetoric for policy. They were right. Women — who voted for Obama 55 percent, to 44 percent for Romney — seemed to understand that Romney’s policies were in opposition to their interests, economic and otherwise. Romney wanted to gut the Affordable Care Act, defund Planned Parenthood, give tax breaks to the wealthy, and said he would be a pro-life president who would follow President George W. Bush’s lead in Supreme Court appointments.//When you consider that women make up two-thirds of minimum wage earners, low-cost health care and reproductive self-determination are inextricable from concerns about the economy. And no woman, whether low- or high-income, could be so foolish as to confuse “binders full of women” for an actual anti-discrimination policy. (Newsday)